The Olympics
by dude.lost.my.cat
Summary: This story is set in 2011/2012. CHERUB is planing it's most daring mission ever. Slightly crossed with Alex Rider. Read and Review please! I'm sorry to everyone who reviewed, I haven't written anything in years. Chapter 8 will make chapter 7 easy to understand, for those waiting for AR to appear, he will soon, chapter 7 was setting up for it. I can't finish this soon. Sorry.
1. Briefing

Author's note: I do not own any of the characters, except those that I made up, and had NOTHING to do with the writing of the actual CHERUB books, this is a slight cross-over, in that it includes SCORPIA, from Alex Rider, I neither wrote, or helped write, CHERUB, or the Alex Rider books.

**CLASSIFIED**

MISSION BRIEFING FOR JAMES ADAMS, BRUCE NORRIS AND KERRY CHANG

THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED WITH A RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION TAG. ANY ATTEMPT TO REMOVE IT FROM THE MISSION PREPARATION BUILDING WILL SET OFF AN ALARM

DO NOT PHOTOCOPY OR MAKE NOTES

Scorpia

_Scorpia was started by ex-spies, following the end of World War 2, the organisation mostly does terrorist acts to gain their money, however, very often they do work that people who have nothing to do with the group wanted, basically, they kill people._

_It has recently come to our attention, that all of the senior members meet once a year in a different location each time, but they meet often while planning large-scale operations._

_MI-5 and Mi-6_

The two military intelligence groups have always worked separately, however, when the decision was made to destroy the Scorpia company completely, the intelligence minister decided to inform MI-5 of an operation which was undergone by MI-6. However, when asked who the agent was that went on the mission, the MI-5 bosses were told that MI-6 had no idea what they were talking about, however, MI-5 still thinks that the information from the intelligence minister will be usefull when the mission is undergone.

_Scorpias Plan_

_It is thought that Scorpia is planning to do an extremely large-scale operation with acclaimed Eco-terrorist group, Help Earth. As the two groups have extremely long histories of mass murder, it became the intelligence services top priority._

_An extremely short mission was working on finding out about the plan, but this came to an abrupt end when the agent who was on the mission was found dead at customs in Heathrow's Arrivals terminal. The fact that the agent was found near London clearly means that Scorpia knew they were from MI-5._

_Cherub's Role_

_It was recently decided to begin a cherub mission, which would attempt to uncover the plan which Scorpia and Help Earth are planning, however, this will be the most complex mission ever, and every agent MUST understand that they can refuse to undergo it, and leave at any time._

_The mission plan seemed simple, the agent discovered one key piece of information, Scorpia's and Help Earth's most senior members are meeting at a hotel in Las Vegas. The initial plan is for the cherub agents to go to the hotel, and place the newly developed cameras and microphones in as many meeting rooms as they can, their role will be decided after the meeting, as to whether they continue to do their jobs and try to stop the plan, or whether they are brought back to campus._

_NOTE: THE CHERUB ETHICS COMMITTEE PASSED THIS MISSION BRIEFING WITH A FOUR TO TWO VOTE, ON THE CONDITION THAT ALL AGENTS UNDERSTAND THE FOLLOWING:_

_This mission has been classed as __**HIGH RISK**__, as the two terrorist groups have such long histories, all agents MUST inform their mission controller before doing ANYTHING that is for the mission, if the controller says it is too dangerous, the agent must NOT try to do it, and must go back to where the team will be staying._

_The USA's most senior intelligence officials have been informed, however, the police will NOT know about the cherub mission, and might not be released from US police custody until the end of the mission._

_All agents have the right to refuse the mission or to leave at ANY time with out being punished._

_All agents will be given Nano-tube re-enforced clothing, and full protective body armour, which MUST be worn at all times when out of their accommodation, especially when going near possible members of either Scorpia or Help Earth._

_There is a chance that an agent may be captured or killed on the mission, but if all agents remember their training, these chances are very slim._

_All agents will also receive small, silenced hand guns, which must be used in a life-or-death situation ONLY, they will also receive MP5-SD machine guns, which MUST NOT be fired unless they are being shot at, if gun fire is heard, the mission WILL be aborted, and all agents will have to return to campus._

_For obvious reasons, the agents on this mission will be given revised training on the use of the guns they will receive, and will also need to do intensive combat training. All the agents lessons will be cancelled for these training sessions, each session will last a whole day, and the agents must be passed by their trainer, if not, they CANNOT go on the mission._

_The mission controllers for the mission will be John Jones, Chloe Blake, and Zara Asker will be available to call if both John and Chloe are unavailable._

_For security reasons, if any agent is arrested, they must NOT tell any police officer their real name, why they are in the US, or who there guardians are. For the purpose of the mission, Chloe Blake will be the agents mother, and John Jones will be allowed to choose to pose as either their grand father, or their father._

_If an agent is arrested, give your FAKE identification only, and say nothing more, as soon as possible, an FBI agent will try and get you out, if they can not, then the agent may be left there until the mission's end._

_While every step has been taken to keep you safe on the mission, you must NOT do anything that you do not feel is right. In a kill-or-be-killed situation, you must try and escape, if you can not, do NOT do anything stupid, like start a fight with a knife wielding terrorist, you must try and knock your opponent out, if you cannot, do what they say, and you will be found as soon as possible._

_Also, all agents accept that this mission may be extended or cut short without prior notice, and must be able to leave __**without**__ being noticed as soon as they are informed they must leave, the same applies with if the mission is extended, all agents must be able to stay for an undefined period of time._

*

"Ok," James said, "so we're dealing with heavily armed terrorists who could be planning to destroy every oil rig on earth, for all we know…"

"I love your cheery out look on it, James" Kerry interrupted.

"Cheery or not, you have 24-hours before I ask if you want to come on the mission or not" John said, in a rather boring tone, which made him sound like a narrator on the worlds most boring TV show.

"With the prospect of a punch-up, why would I say no?" Bruce stated, with a rather strange amount of joy in his voice.

"Didn't you read the briefing? We've got to avoid getting arrested, starting a fight will more than certainly get us arrested." Kerry said as if she were speaking to a four-year old.

"As I said, you've got twenty-four hours until I ask you if you want to come, consider the dangers you might face while there, I don't want to have to write a report to Zara about how one of you got killed."

"You won't, well, not for me, 'cause I'm sensible. Which is less than I can say for these two…creatures…" Kerry said, grinning, as she looked at James and Bruce's, quite pissed off, faces.


	2. In Flight Entertainment

The RAF jet was designed for one thing, speed, not comfort, or anything useful, just speed. Because of the speed that it goes at, it should take the cherubs about one and a half hours less to get to America than it would on a commercial jet.

The cherubs were relatively comfortable, except from the fact that there was no lock on the toilet door. a few sandwiches Chloe had thrown together at about 2:30 in the morning. The storage shelves that were normally in the plane had been removed, and replaced with two rows of seats, each row with three seats. The equipment they needed was already on the plane, the plane had been prepared about two days ago, and they were going over their background story.

John Jones was posing as the father of the three cherubs, while Chloe was being their mother. Their name was, for the purpose of the mission, Jones, so they were, John, James, Bruce, Chloe, and Kerry Jones.

"So, James, why are we in Vegas?" john asked, before taking a bite out of one of the sandwiches.

"We're in Vegas 'cause our dad's mother lives in a town, just outside the city." James replied.

"This story gives us an alibi for being out of the room in the hotel a lot," Chloe explained. However, if any of you three are seen in the hotel when we are meant to be out, you might have to answer some difficult questions to someone, so remain unseen. Remember, our story may seem real, but if SCORPIA and help earth think something's wrong, they'll disappear faster than we can track them."

"What do you mean?" James asked, with a look that said he didn't believe Chloe at all.

"Well, their planes, from what little we know, are almost always rented, and they always file fake flight plans, so we would have no idea where they were actually heading, even if we did know they were leaving." John replied.

The cherubs sat reading their briefing and background stories for a time. About ten minutes after john's reply, the plane fell sharply to the left, causing James' briefing, a plastic box of sandwiches, and two coffees, in disposable cups, to fall on the floor. Bruce and Kerry found this hilarious, after the plane had levelled out again. James picked his briefing up off the floor. It was ruined, covered in coffee and stained with about five different foods, making it un-readable.

"Shit!" James yelled, as he realised that, not only had the food fallen on his briefing, but on him too.

"He looks like an all you can eat buffet." Kerry said, while laughing.

About half an hour later, the co-pilot came into the cabin area that the five were in,

"It seems that there's been some problems with the Americans flight planning systems, and they told us that most foreign private jets are being diverted to other airports, however, as this is an RAF jet, we're gonna be diverted to an air force base." She explained, before she took a long drink from a mug of coffee.

"Is that good for us, or not?" John asked.

"Well, it's not helpful, but unless you've got a bomb or nuke hidden in here, we should arrive in Vegas only one hour after planned."

"Which would be at what time?"

"About nine or nine thirty at night."

"Right, thanks for telling us." John nodded.

The co-pilot turned, and headed back the way she came, stopping only to throw the cardboard mug, which had held coffee, into a small bin by the toilet.

"That's no good, we're probably gonna be stuck at the air force base for hours, and they're more than likely to take the equipment off the plane." John said as he got his mobile ready, "as soon as we're on the ground, I'm going into the base and calling campus to try and get it sorted so we get out of here as quickly as we can."

The co-pilot pushed her head around the door into the main cabin, "We should be landing soon, put your seatbelts on please."

It was not the most comfortable of landings; the plane missed the runway the first time, and almost crashed into a field of cows. As it came around for it's second attempt at the landing. It landed. And stop about 10 meters before the runway ended.

"How pleasant, we almost became Big Macs twice then." James said as he smiled.

"Imagine being served up with mayo and tomato." Bruce said, shortly before the door on the side of the plane opened, and two uniformed US air force officers entered the main cabin.

[I would like to point out, that the lack of actual official stuff, with passports and such, is because I have no idea how it would actually happen.]

After their short break at the air force base, they arrived in Vegas about fifteen minutes before planned, which amazed john because he could have sworn they would not ever get there early. Unfortunately, James couldn't go through a normal airport, because of a training exercise just outside of Vegas, after which him and a training instructor robbed about $3,000, and then got caught cheating, and the police got a photo, however blurred, or James. But, this wasn't a problem, as they were landing at an air force base anyway.

[Again, sorry for the lack of actual passports and stuff being used here]

It took them a further hour to reach the hotel they were going to stay at from where they landed. When they arrived, James realised that it was right next to the one him and Mr Kazakov stole the money from. However, the one they were staying in was far larger

"It's huge!" James exclaimed.


	3. Checking In

James was amazed at the size of his bed. He thought his campus bed was huge. But this was about eight-times that size! He did the only thing he could think of doing at that time, he went for a piss. But, then again, about six hours stuck on a plane without a working toilet will make someone need to piss quite badly.

After he had gone to the toilet, he looked around the bathroom at what the hotel provided. There was your usual stuff, shampoo bottles that were only good for one use, soap that left your hands with a questionable smell, and, much to James' enjoyment, a condom. Unfortunately, James had not had a girlfriend for some time…but all that could change!

James thought back to when he was running from the cops a few years earlier. He realised that wherever they went, he would need to disguise his face, which wouldn't be hard, unless they left to go somewhere at night. His mobile had rung while he was on the toilet, so he went to his backpack and checked the screen. One missed call, from Lauren. Then, a text, also from Lauren.

**Yo goin trainin 2moro back in few days**

James was glad that Lauren wasn't missing him, but also sad that she hadn't mentioned it at all. He sent her a text saying good luck. But that's all he could do, cause john had booked a table down in the hotel's restaurant for 10, and it was a quarter to then. James had to; unpack, throw his stuff in the wardrobe, and change into something, which would fit in with the hotel's fancy looks. All but the last one would be easy, as all James had brought by way of clothes were some t-shirts, and jeans. Fortunately, Kerry called, and said that john had changed the plan, because the restaurant was packed.

The new eating plan, called for john to rearrange the furniture in his room, so all the cherubs and staff could fit around it. John started the conversation,

"as you know, we've been having some MI5 from the embassy keeping their eyes on this place, of course, we couldn't tell them why we had them watching the hotel, for safety reasons, but we have had them reassigned. They're safely back in England now, and have been forced to sign the official secrets act."

"So," James began, "Are these Scorpia people here yet?"

"No. not yet, but, now that we're here, we don't need the MI5 agents watching the hotel." Chloe answered.

"Why are we meeting to discuss this then?" Bruce asked.

"Well, Bruce" John replied, "the answer is simple, we need to discuss what parts of the hotel will need to be bugged, if we're hoping to catch Scorpia in the act of planning some evil deed."

"So, what equipment do we have?" Kerry asked.

"the usual surveillance stuff. Microphones, cameras, and all the usual stuff you would have on a mission." John replied.

"And this." Chloe said, as she pulled out a laser microphone. The small, black object was capable of picking sound up through glass. But, none of the cherubs knew what it was, or, more importantly, how to use it.

"What the hell is that?!" James exclaimed.

"This, James, is a laser microphone." Chloe replied.

"I think I've seen one of those. In that espionage training we did last year, remember James?" Kerry said.

"I think I do, but how does it work?"

"I've got no idea." Kerry replied.

*Author's note: I'd like to point out, that I have no idea how one works, but I'm gonna guess here*

"Well," Chloe said as she turned it on its side, "first, you have to turn it on, then, you simply point it at the glass surface, and press the record button."

"Of course, this is only going to be used if Scorpia meet in like, a restaurant or something, that isn't in the hotel." John said.

"Or they go to a different hotel all together." James said.

After their, rather brief, meeting, James went back to his room. He opened the door, only to find all his clothes spread over the floor, in a huge mess. He immediately grabbed his mobile, and called the campus switchboard.

"Unicorn Tyre Repair" the operator said.

"this is agent twelve-o-three," James said, "It seems like someone's gone through the stuff in my room, can you put me through to John Jones?"

"James, don't you have his number?"

"No, well, yeah, but not with me."

"Ok, I'll try his mobile."

After about thirty seconds, John answered his mobile.

"James, what happened?" John demanded.

"I…I honestly don't know, but it looks like someone went through my stuff while I was up in your room." James replied, while he cautiously looked around the room, with a can of pepper spray, in case someone was still there.

"Ok, I'll be right down, don't do anything!"

"When would I ever do something like that?" James said, half-laughing as he did.

About a minute after he'd hung up, John walked into James' room.

"that could be how they got in," john said as he closed, and locked, the door.

"I'm sure I locked it when I left…" James said, as he grabbed the hotel door key from his pocket.

"Well, what ever happened, it would seem we've either been discovered, or the maid wanted to know what size sock you wear, either way, we'd best get you a room closer to mine, upstairs on the 9th floor…" John said.

"Ok, but what if they found anything that would mean they knew who I am?" James asked.

"If they know which room to search, they probably already know your name. But still, we're gonna have to sort that out." John answered.

"I was using the fake passport you gave me, so they shouldn't know my real name."

"hang on. was the balcony door open when you left?" john asked, as he reached inside his coat and pulled out a gun.

"No, it wasn't. The room was too cold, so I turned the heating up. I wouldn't have opened the door and made it colder…"

John pushed his gun out of the door and cautiously stepped out, half expecting to be punched in the face as he did so. But he wasn't expecting what he did find. A small envelope had been left, embodied with a scorpion.


	4. Moving Up In The World

Three days later

Zara had flown out, after briefing the prime minister about Scorpia and what happened in the hotel room. The PM was less than pleased that she had decided not to inform the Americans, and he was certainly not pleased by the fact that Scorpia already knew who was after them.

*

Back in the hotel, however, James had moved into the room next door to John's, and the letter had been sent to campus, so their forensics experts could see if there were any fingerprints. After James had cleaned his room up, he realised that he might as well take all the free stuff that the hotel had provided. So, he walked into the bathroom, took all the stuff, and crammed it into a small plastic bag. But, as you'd expect, the cheap bottles of shampoo burst open, covering James in lavender scented cleaning products.

"Shit!" he exclaimed, and then, to his horror, the door opened, and Kerry was stood there, just staring at him. She looked like she had either seen the most disgusting thing ever, or the most funny. She then burst out laughing.

"It's not funny," James yelled "These jeans cost fifty-quid!"

"Clearly…you should…get cheap…er cloth…es" Kerry said, while still laughing a lot.

"Anyway, I didn't come in here to laugh, I came to give u these." She said, finally stopping. She handed James a brown envelope.

"What's this?" he asked.

"Listening devices and cameras." Kerry replied, in a near inaudible whisper.

"Right…"

"And a map, of where you gotta put 'em."

"Ok, I'm goin up to my new room then… see ya."

"Bye, lavender boy." Kerry said, giggling.

*

Once James reached his room, he realised he'd need to either wash, or burn his clothes, which ever became doable first. He took off his clothes as he stepped into the bathroom. He flicked on the light and got in the shower.

After about a half-hour, he stepped out of the shower. Dried off. Then busied himself putting his clothes in his new wardrobe. After his clothes were away. He then went to the bag filled with half-destroyed shampoo bottles.

"Fuck, they give you a lot of these…" he said to himself, as he took the bag to the sink, and let the rest of the lavender scented liquid pour away. Fortunately, he thought, I put the condom in my pocket. Then he realised that he hadn't, and it had in fact, fallen down the drain.

"Damn!"

*

After an hour of attempted rescue, he decided that a condom wasn't worth getting his hand covered in the horrible stuff in the sink's drain. After washing his hand, he went to the envelope Kerry had given him. Opening it, quite stupidly, upside down, and the contents narrowly missed his lavender-shampoo covered clothes. Now, you may think this was lucky, but as James stepped back, he slipped over the lavender covered clothes, and landed on the extremely expensive listening devices and cameras.

After cleaning up his room a bit more, James was lucky to have only damaged one of the twenty listening devices. He looked briefly at the map which had been firmly wedged into the envelope, until James got at it with a pair of hotel-branded scissors. He soon realised that his job, was to bug the many briefing rooms, which was the most likely place for a meeting to be held. He also realised, that with only nine-teen listening devices, and twenty cameras, he'd gone and fucked the mission, atleast, he had if they met in the room with only the camera.

After looking at the bedside clock, he realised it was 1 am, and he'd never get the briefing rooms bugged if he didn't try to sleep at night. So he stuck on the pair of underwear he had on earlier, as he couldn't be bothered to search for a clean pair, and got into bed.

The next morning

James woke up at 4 am, only one hour after he'd fallen asleep. He opened his eyes, and to his horror, realised the light was on. Now, this normally wouldn't freak a person out, but he was certain that he'd turned it off. He quietly rolled off his bed, and reached into the draw on the table next to the bed. After removing the cap off the pepper spray, and making sure that it wouldn't squirt at him if he did press down, he cautiously looked around the hotel room.

Upon reaching the bathroom, he'd started to think that he may have left the light on, as nothing had been moved or touched. Then he walked into the bathroom. There, right in front of him, was a photograph of Lauren, and another envelope. This envelope also had a scorpion on it.

Author's note: Sorry this one is so short, but I only wanted to set the scene for what's gonna happen later on... that's all I'll say about this chapter :) By the way, Review please!

and, another note, I am sorry about the length of time between updates, but, I plan the next one to be "2-for-1", by which I mean it'll be two chapters in one, or, I hope for it to be!


	5. Compound Interest

**Author's note: I don't own any of the characters in this, except those who don't appear in the actual books, such as Tim. All other characters I don't own. Also, I appolagise for the pun in the name of the story, however, I find it rather "funny"... If you think about it, you might get why...[I know most people won't think about it, so I'll tell you :) it's "funny" as "compound interest" is what you get from a savings account, and the training _compound_ is in it, and SCORPIA show an _interest_ in Lauren...**

* * *

Lauren had no idea what the training mission her, and nine other people from her floor were going on. However, no one liked each other in the ten-strong group, so it wasn't going to be something nice. The only thing they knew, was that they had been given body armour, and simulated rounds, for the rifles they'd been told they would receive at the location.

In actual fact, the ten cherub agents, would be going up against some of the strongest, best trained SAS men in Britain, in the SAS' specialised Urban Warfare compound, a few miles away from cherub campus. Of course, the agents didn't know this.

*

At the SAS compound, the ten SAS men had already been told that they were going to be fighting children, however, to reveal as little as possible about cherub, the SAS men were told that it was an Army Cadet training exercise. They had already formulated a plan, which meant that five would be close together, surrounding the location the agents had to reach. A small fake-fast-food hut, which was supposed to serve fatty food to the masses, or atleast, it would if the compound was a real city. The other five, would head towards where they had been told the agents would be dropped off at, in hope of catching them off their guard.

*

Once the mini-bus had dropped the ten cherubs off at the compound, they were given their rifles, and told to wait for the go-code, which was, quite oddly, "Penguin." The word came out of a small, very old, radio in the corner of the room after about ten minutes.

All the agents had been to the compound before, but they had no idea where they had been dropped off, all they knew, was that they had to reach the fast-food hut. After they had been walking for a while, Lauren turned around and addressed the whole group.

"You know, I get the feeling we're going the wrong way…" she trailed off, as she turned back, and continued walking.

"Why the fuck would you think that?" Ronan said, shortly before walking into a ten-metre high wire fence.

"That's what, idiot." Lauren giggled.

"So, which way do we go?" Jake, Lauren's best friend's little brother, asked.

"Well, if we're not near the hut, and that we only went a short way after entering the compound, I would guess that we're at the West side…"

"So, we just walked for five minutes, going the wrong way?" Ronan said, as if it was Lauren's fault.

"Don't blame me, dick-head," Lauren yelled, "I didn't suggest walking this way, you did, actually. Anyway, if we're going to succeed in this exercise," she said this to the whole group, "We have to get along, so why don't we all just atleast pretend we like each other, and work as a team, eh?" Lauren had no authority over the cherubs off campus, but none of them would want to accept the blame if they failed, and knew that the punishment for failing would be worse than the actual exercise.

"So, which way, Lauren?" Tim, a newly qualified agent, asked.

"Well, considering that the location we need to reach is on the other side of the compound, I would suggest that way." She replied, pointing back the way they had come from.

"Right, so, we're gonna follow Lauren's orders like sheep, then?" Ronan asked, still disliking Lauren being in charge.

"No one has to," Lauren said, "But, personally, I think we stand a better chance if we stick together, and I'm not following anyone else's orders."

"Fine then," Ronan shouted, "I'm gonna continue along the fence." As he said this, he turned and walked off along the fence. Turning around after about five minutes of walking, he was shocked to see none of his friends had followed him, and also, he was scared, because if their opponent found him, he'd be easy to shoot.

*

At the same time, the SAS men were checking their weapons, and five of them moved off towards the west, in a sort of running-jog, which is the best the could do with all their guns and body armour on. After three minutes, they heard the agents talking, and, after a farther minute, could see them approaching. The agents had no idea what was about to happen.

*

James had run straight to john's room, with his pepper spray, and the letter. Throwing care to the wind, he almost knocked an elderly couple flying as the raced down the corridor, and himself was almost knocked over by the fattest man James had ever seen, he wasn't sure if he was in fact even a man, or alive, as he appeared to be laying on the floor near the stairs, and didn't move when James stepped on him, which he hadn't meant to do, of course. Upon reaching John's room, James didn't bother waiting for him to get up and come to the door, so he just picked the lock, and ran in, shocking John, who was sitting watching BBC News 24 on the tiny TV in his room.

After explaining what had happened, which wasn't much, as far as James could tell, John had called campus, and spoken to Zara, the chairwoman, who had decided that the mission was too dangerous, and told John that an agent from MI5 would put the bugs in the hotel, instead of the cherubs, and ordered him, and the kids, back to campus, where she was certain they would all be safe.

John had read the letter to her, after he opened it;

_We know what you are here to do, and, unless you leave immediately, the person in this photograph may end up seriously hurt, or worse. We make no guarantees; even if you do leave, but it is most likely they will live if you do._

_You have twelve hours to pack your bugs away, and leave, or we will kill her, and all of you too._

*

After being told what the letter said, Zara had called an emergency meeting with the ethics committee, to decide how safe it would be if they brought Lauren back to campus. Zara had called the SAS commander at the urban warfare compound, and ordered him to end the training, which hadn't gone down well, and he refused to end the training, claiming that "too many people worked too hard for it to happen" and, "he would loose his job if he did."

The ethics committee decided it would be best if a vehicle from off campus picked Lauren, and the other cherubs, up, as there is little chance that SCORPIA would have planned for them to move Lauren away from the compound, and, even if they had, there was a very, very, slim chance they would have prepared every possibility, but, no changes were to be taken.


	6. Driving Through: The Dark Roads

Authors note: Same as last chapter, I don't own any characters, except those I make up, and, I've now read the latest book (Brigands M.C), so this one'll include more accurate storyline, to those who've read it, atleast…

* * *

The vehicle pulled off the motorway at just over 100mph, causing three police cars to follow it and more than eight speed cameras to photograph it.  
As it pulled up the CHERUBS watched as three police officers climbed out of their cars and, just as quickly as they had got out jumped back in, having realised two army officers were pointing AK- 47s at them.  
[I'm not sure about the next bit. Which officer is talking- I'm assuming the army officer in a Jeep or similar, but I don't currently see where he's come from]  
"Get in, now!" the officer closest to the children ordered.  
"Why? Lauren asked.  
"No time now, get in!" the officer shouted and swung his gun around, so it was pointing at the children, while simultaneously pointing at the police officers in their cars with his free hand.  
"Oh shit!" Dante shouted, throwing himself into the armoured Jeep.  
"Ok..."Lauren said "everyone in!" Lauren instructed, in the least terrified voice she could muster"  
"What's going on?" Lauren demanded.  
"Well...I honestly don't fucking know, kid, but I was told not to talk to you...other than to tell you I can't talk to you..."one of the SAS officer said.

*

After arriving at an undisclosed location, the middle of a field, the helicopter pilot was surprised to find 5 children, clad in full body armour with guns, waiting to be taken to yet another undisclosed location.

*

After arriving at the next undisclosed location' four of the five CHERUBS recognised their surroundings as the airfield where the plane for the summer hostel departs. The only who didn't was Dante who hadn't been to the summer hostel, thanks to a succession of missions. All the Cherubs, however, recognised the face of chairwoman Zara Asker, sitting behind the wheel of one of the camps mini- busses.  
"Zara!" Lauren shouted, running over to the mini bus, with the others shortly behind.  
"Not here, don't use names, any of you." Zara said, firmly.  
"But what's…"  
"Not here. Get in, we'll discuss it later." The Cherubs did as they were told, climbing into the mini bus.  
"None of you talk about where you live. It's not safe to do so, at least, it might not be." Zara said, looking worried and pulling away and speeding up to well over the 40mph speed limit.

After arriving back at campus the agents were given a very brief explanation as to why they were taken out of the training and were asked to return to their rooms, take off the clothes they had on and were given a special fitted set to don instead. They were also instructed not to talk to anyone and that doing so could put anyone they spoke to in immediate danger.

*

After putting on the horrible black skirt and purple top she had been given, Lauren's phone rang. She heard a dull noise, like you would hear when a plane was about to take off, but she just attributed it to someone flushing their toilet or something. She had taken another step towards her bed, where she had left her phone, when she heard a whistling noise. She knew, like most toilets, that the ones on campus had to refill their cistern after each flush, but she became slightly alarmed, as the whistling grew louder. She didn't worry too much, and plucked her phone off her bed. Flipping it open, she heard rat's voice on the other end. Then she heard one of the 50mm anti-aircraft cannons, which were positioned on each corner of cherub campus, blasting five shots into the sky. The whistling grew even louder. Then the power went out and the main building shook violently, as some small objects hit the floor.

**Author's note: I've changed this chapter so it fits in with the next one.**


	7. Driving Through: Sonic Boom

The Air Force base, RAF Lakenheath, near Suffolk, ran on a staff of less than 10% the daily amount, which at the lowest was over 100 pilots and more than 400 air-controllers and other staff, such as engineers. This thin staffing meant it took almost 30 minutes to notice the two **North American X-15 planes approaching an army firing range, about 5 klicks south-west of Lakenheath. As soon as one of the five air-controllers who were working that night noticed it, all the pilots who were on base, and several who were off base, were scrambled and ordered to either force the planes to land, or destroy them. The reason behind such a violent order was that the X-15 is the world's fastest plane, built by NASA, and reaching speeds over 4 times the speed of sound. Lakenheath's commander knew that if they didn't stop or destroy the planes, anything could happen.**

*

As if being woken up at half-past-midnight wasn't bad enough, John Riddley knew he wouldn't be back to bed for atleast an hour. He knew that there were people at his work who could handle the problem, but he also knew he could get fired if he took too long to get to work.

Heading down the main corridor in his eighth floor apartment, he grabbed a small box of cereal, because he knew he wouldn't find anywhere to get food between his home and his work. He looked out the window, and saw two rather large planes blasting across the sky. It only took him seconds to realise what was going on, and he grabbed his keys and rushed out of his home.

*

It wasn't bad enough, having two planes going over 4,000 KMH, Lakenheath's commander also had to worry about his two run-ways, and the fact that more than fifteen planes taking to the sky. All of the planes would be loaded with atleast four air-to-air rockets, and over a hundred bullets for their cannons. Even worse, was the thought that, if these two planes turned out to be American fighter-pilots testing out new types of planes, he could face a court-martial.

He tried not to think of these thoughts, as he stood behind a row of air-traffic-controllers, many of which hadn't even been hired as military controllers, rather civilian controllers, who operated from a tower, which was on the base. He didn't worry about civilian flights falling from the sky, because all the flights that would've been in their air-space had been diverted to avoid the X-15 planes.

*

The main problems CHERUB campus security teams faced, were usually kids from on campus who had been out later than they were allowed. This crisis, was on a completely different scale. All the staff had been woken up by the sound of the alarm, which also woke all the security staff up. Manning the four 50mm cannons on campus was easy, but few of the security staff could remember the training they received in using them.

As the planes drew nearer to campus, an alarm started that was designed to wake all of campus up. It did this perfectly, putting out just under the amount of sound that can permanently damage hearing. As the alarm rang, an earth shaking explosion hit the main power building on campus, then the search-lights the cannons had used went out. But the shooting didn't stop, because the operators of the cannons could hear the planes, and shot towards the sound. Unfortunately, when an object goes faster than the speed of sound, the sound that it makes doesn't stay with in, instead, it is a fair distance from the object.

*

John drove flat out along the small roads through Suffolk, which gained him more camera flashes than there were at the Oscars. It also caused the police chase to after him. When he was less than 500m from the RAF base, the police had trebled in strength, to near 10 vehicles. He slowed at the first check-point to the base, showed the guard his military ID, and quickly drove through the raised barrier. As the barrier came back down, a police officer jumped out of her car and rushed towards the check-point.

"You have to let us through." She panted, slightly out of breath from the 100m run she had made to reach the check-point.

"I'm sorry, only military personnel and the civilian controllers who operate on this base are allowed through. Unless you have a warrant for a person's arrest, I can't even tell the commander you're here."

"Bollocks to that, let us through! That car you just let through was going over 120 MPH through _Suffolk_ city centre!" she screamed, getting aggravated by the fact that the guard hadn't let her through, like she had expected.

"Ma'am, I'm fully aware you want to get through, but the driver of that car had been called to this base."

"Let me through, or I'll have to arrest you." The officer said, reaching for her baton.

"There's no need for that, go back to your car, turn around, and tell your commanding officer that he was wanted at Lakenheath Air-Force base."

"I'm arresting you under suspicion…" the officer began, before the Military Police officer reached towards his holster, which was hidden from the officer's view by the half-wall which the MP was stood behind.

"Turn around, and go back to your station," the MP said, firmly, as he drew his gun "that's an order!"

"You can't order me around! Let us through _now_!" the female officer said, her voice getting higher pitched as she realised that she wouldn't get through the gate unless she hit the MP with her baton.

*

The 50mm cannons on campus were louder than any weapon any of the kids, and most of the staff, had ever heard. As soon as the main power had gone off, a very small emergency generator in the basement of the main building, below the archives, rattled loudly into life. The generator provided less power than the search lights would need, but the generator only powered lights and electric doors, like the card scanner on the mission preparation building, so the buildings on campus could be evacuated.

As Lauren dropped her phone, another blast rippled through campus, throwing her towards her bathroom as the glass in the main building shattered. Lauren realised she may only have minutes to live.

Authors note: well, there's the second part of this multi-chapter section (I've decided to make some short chapters that fitted together well) I should have the next chapter done soon :)


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